White Sox Chair Jerry Reinsdorf was “encouraged by the response from Sox fans calling and signing on for more tickets next season, enough to give” Senior VP & GM Rick Hahn “a green light” to sign LF Melky Cabrera, according to Daryl Van Schouwen of the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES. White Sox attendance has “declined each year” since ‘06, but “with the addition of five quality players to the roster this offseason, it seems reasonable to expect the Sox to contend in the AL Central and top last year’s 1,650,821 figure, an average of 20,896.” That attendance mark ranked 28th in MLB. Hahn said, “Things have gone well thus far from a sales standpoint which played a role in Jerry allowing us to go beyond our originally targeted payroll.” Van Schouwen notes the current payroll “projects to around” $110M, about $20M “more than last season” (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 12/17). Hahn said of the 78-year-old Reinsdorf’s willingness to increase payroll, “I don't know if it's fair to think it has to do with his age or anything else. But I'm biased because I've been around him 15 years and know that aggressiveness is there." In Chicago, David Haugh writes when the White Sox “got serious about Cabrera after learning of his willingness to take a three-year contract because he liked how he fit with the Sox, it was Reinsdorf who quickly went from unavailable to fully engaged.” White Sox Exec VP Ken Williams said, “When I clued Jerry in and said we were going to make it work, Jerry became un-busy.” Haugh notes selling "nearly 1,000 season tickets" after trading for P Jeff Samardzija "helped persuade Reinsdorf." Williams: "With Melky, ultimately, Jerry said, 'Let's have faith in what we see from our fans’” (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 12/17).
SIGN OF THINGS TO COME? The CHICAGO TRIBUNE’s Paul Sullivan wonders whether Reinsdorf is “building up the team for a possible sale down the road, as Tribune Co. did with the Cubs with its spending spree” after the ‘06 season. Williams said, “He wants to win another World Series. Those are our marching orders. Ultimately what happens, that's above my pay grade” (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 12/17).
